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1. Go to the SLAC FastX web login page:   https://fastx.slac.stanford.edu:3443  
2. Log in with your SLAC Unix username and password.

3.   Do not check the Public Key Authentication option – that will not work well since it will not give you an AFS token.

4. To start a new session, click on the plus box: 

   

5. Inside the command box, you can start an xterm window and connect to a SLAC interactive login pool machine like this. You can replace rhel6-64 with the hostname of your own group's interactive login machine if you have one. Next to the command box, make sure 'multiple' is chosen (it's a drop down menu; the other choice is single).  Multiple means "multiple window mode" which allows you to move and resize your X client windows inside your browser window.

   xterm -e ssh rhel6-64.slac.stanford.edu
       

    

6. If you want to run your own window manager inside the browser client (instead of the default window manager you get when you run in "multiple window mode"), then choose "single window mode". Type the following two commands inside your xterm window if you want to run the "twm" window manager (the xsetroot command just makes your desktop background a more pleasing color):

   twm &
   xsetroot -solid grey

   Other lightweight window managers include fvwm2, fluxbox, and xfce.   If these are not installed, you can ask unix-admin to install them (they are part of the EPEL repository).  It is possible to run an entire GNOME or KDE session (using the commmands 'gnome-session' or 'startkde').  In general, the best way to use FastX is to only start the specific applications you need, without using an entire desktop environment.  But you are free to experiment to find the best solution for you.
    

7. Now you can start your Linux X applications by typing the commands inside your xterm window.   For example:

   gimp &
   gvim &
   gnome-terminal &
   /afs/slac/package/anaconda/anaconda3/bin/spyder &
   
         
   
       

8. As always, your SLAC Unix AFS token needs to be renewed every 25 hours.   If your AFS token expires, then you will not be able to write files into your AFS home directory.  When you reconnect to your session later, the 'qtoken' command will quickly tell you if you have a current AFS token or not.  If your AFS token as expired, then use the 'kinit' command to get a new Kerberos ticket and AFS token.

   /usr/local/bin/qtoken
   /usr/local/bin/kinit

Session sharing with FastX

If you wish to use the "Session sharing" feature of FastX (so you can grant others permission to view your session – but only when you are actively attached to the session yourself), then you need to start a new session and select mode=single, and NOT mode=multiple. 

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Using the Client application

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